How Weight Watchers CEO Mindy Grossman Is Democratizing Wellness

Mindy Grossman’s first year as Weight Watchers’ CEO couldn’t have gone better. The 55-year-old publicly traded company’s stock price has more than tripled since Grossman started, topping $100 for the first time ever earlier this month. Shareholders are anticipating a major transformation from diet company to wellness brand—and that shift towards “purpose,” as Grossman happily described to FORBES recently, has already begun. From launching Weight Watchers first fresh, meal-kit line at grocery stores next month to reformulating products that previously had artificial sweeteners and preservatives, which will launch on shelves in January, Grossman says she is rebuilding Weight Watchers for the long term and is focusing on democratizing wellness.

“We wanted to evolve from being the best weight-loss program to being everyone’s partner in health,” Grossman explained on stage in front of hundreds at Forbes Women’s Summit this week.

FORBES sat down with Grossman after her panel and talked about Weight Watchers’ continued partnership with Oprah Winfrey, tips for women in business and how to combat America’s paradox of health. (This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity).

FORBES: How do you define wellness today?

MINDY GROSSMAN: The vernacular of wellness has definitely evolved. The way we think about it is very holistic. It’s what you put in your body, how you move your body and how your mind supports your efforts, but the big thing that has changed is people want to define what healthy is, too. We’ve done a lot of consumer work over the past number of years and synthesized it down into a number of things that have really influenced how we’re moving forward. And people want inspiration. It’s not just information. There’s too much conflicting noise happening right now. So if you can both give people the information and inspiration then, what we like to say is, healthy is the new skinny and that’s very empowering for people. We want to help people be the healthiest version of themselves.

FORBES: You have said that if a business makes the right decisions, it’ll get better returns. Why did you embark on the big endeavor to reformulate Weight Watchers products and also launch the grocery line that comes out next month?

GROSSMAN: When we embarked on this journey to go from being the leader in healthy eating and weight loss to saying we want this more holistic approach to wellness, we had to sit back and say, "Well, if we are going to be a health and wellness company, what decisions do we have to make moving forward?” Our purpose is to inspire healthy habits for real life—for people, for families, for communities. We created a purpose filter off of that. And we put every single thing we did through that purpose filter. Every product. Every person. Every hire. Every organizational decision. And what happened is we realized that not everything we were doing was living up to that. And so we made the decision that, if we’re going to be a health and wellness business, to get out of any product that we sold with any artificial ingredients sweeteners and preservatives. It was 70% of the products. You don’t have to eat specific foods to be on Weight Watchers. You can eat anything. But we created a lot of products that could help people, whether they be healthy snacks or whether they be breakfast foods, and we realize we weren’t living up to that. So we have reformulated or gotten out of any product that didn’t live up to that. We are launching all of our products and new packaging around the brand in January. But once we made that decision, we sat back and said, “Well, what product categories should we be in that’s going to help our members or anyone on their journey?” We want to own the healthy kitchen. We are just launching in the next month WW Healthy Kitchen, which is healthy quick-prep meals. Pick them up at the grocery and take them home and put them together and have a great meal in less than 15 minutes. So we’re going to be building out the fresh platform, in addition to the other foods we have. But that one decision where we said, “It doesn't matter that it’s 70% of our products. We are going to make a financial decision that is actually going to win us the ability to do so much more than we have ever done in those categories.” That’s really powerful.

FORBES: So why are you excited for Weight Watchers’ new Summer of Impact campaign, and can you tell us a little bit about why this is the first camping that hasn’t launched in January?

GROSSMAN: When I got to the organization, I said, “Well, look, if we’re going to truly be a health and wellness company, people don’t only want to get healthy in January. We are going to be 365, but it will peak at different points of the year.” So we’re running our first summer campaign in the history of the company, called Summer of Impact. It’s also the first campaign that was briefed and launched simultaneously in 12 countries. It’s all around food, family, fun and healthy. It’s also the first time we have the capability to refer a friend in the app and incentivize you to be healthy with your friends and do it together because we know that ripple effect of people who do it together. The third prong is the launch of WW Good. Our goal as part of our purpose is to help undeserved communities get healthier because we believe in the democratization of wellness. If health doesn’t discriminate, neither should access. So we’re creating around the world opportunities, and actually, in the U.S. and Canada, we have seven festivals. The first one was Minneapolis and next one is Chicago on Sunday. People can do a workout. They can learn about healthy cooking. They can do gratitude journaling. You do not have to pay for access to these festivals. If you go because you want to make yourself healthier, for every person that attends, that unlocks a month’s worth of fresh food for a family in need.

FORBES: Oprah Winfrey became a large shareholder in board member in 2015, and Weight Watchers’ stock has risen from less than $7 to over $100. How has this relationship evolved over time? And what would you say has been Oprah’s biggest contribution to Weight Watchers?

GROSSMAN: Oprah is a 10% shareholder in the company. She’s a board member and, as I like to say, who would not want Oprah Winfrey as a board member? But more important than that, she is a believer in what we’re trying to accomplish, not just for a financial return on equity but a human return on equity. I have been so fortunate to have her as a partner throughout this past year as we’ve looked to evolve and transform and change the company. And certainly it’s working, right? These elements that are in effect around moving from weight to wellness and being able to diversify and having more people in the program—she’s certainly been a partner strategically throughout that and then also within the U.S. in particular and other areas, like being able to utilize her strategically from a marketing perspective where she feels she can even have greater impact. It’s a long-term relationship. It’s very inclusive and very accessible, and we’re very fortunate for that. But in addition we have to execute on all areas of the business. So the teams are galvanizing around the world. We have brand reputation and business goals that we’ve stated externally by the end of 2020 and milestones that we are delivering to.

FORBES: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from Oprah?

GROSSMAN: There was an article I recently read and somebody described her and her incredible talent to have ultimate discretion. Oprah practices using a purpose filter every day, and it’s as important to decide what you’re not going to do as what you are going to do. I have always felt the same way, but being able to partner with someone who lives and breathes—that has been very, very, very beneficial.

FORBES: Along those lines, what are some tips you would share with young women in business?

GROSSMAN: Number one: You have to have ultimate belief in yourself, because why is someone going to believe in you if you can’t believe in yourself? Number two: You have to have acute self-awareness. You have to understand the implications of your impact on others. Number three: Aim to make other people successful. And if you do that you, the business will ultimately be more successful. That’s how I’ve always lived my career, and that’s why I’ve been able to build the relationships that I have.

FORBES: What are some other ways that Weight Watchers has continued to empower women in new ways?

GROSSMAN: Weight Watchers is an organization that truly embraces diversity, and we believe that it is a business imperative not just for us, but in the partners that we want to do business with. We want them to embrace diversity as well. Today diversity is defined so much broader than just gender. Although that is critical, because there’s truly an imbalance. But you have to look at diversity of age, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, income level, life stage, right? We have to embrace all elements of cultural diversity, and we spent a tremendous amount of time on this as a team. We really embrace productive discomfort, and if you have the right diversity in the room, you can have so many more robust conversations. It comes down to respect. Are you respecting those voices? But are you also recognizing if a voice isn’t in the room? And are you taking that into consideration? You can’t do that unless you everyone has an understanding of what diversity means. The other thing that is really important to identify today is that there is clear qualitative and quantitative evidence that more diverse companies are going to have greater long-term sustainable success. So when you think of who you want your partners to be, who you want to invest in and what you want to do, don’t you want to do that with people who want to have the greatest long-term success? And that’s how we think about it.

FORBES: What else should we know?

GROSSMAN: We are really trying to solve the “Paradox of Health” that’s happening in the world today. We are all fervently, excitedly talking about the growth of the wellness economy to $3.7 trillion and private equity investing. We don’t want to use the word “diet,” and we’re excited about $20 smoothies and a $50 face mask. And the world is getting unhealthier every single day and, in particular, undeserved communities even more so. Our goal is to solve that paradox, not just to empower people to take their health journey and support them, but to really partner with others. Our Advisory Board publishes studies because we want to be a brand that’s going to help, not just service ourselves. We’re looking for those partners that are going to help try and solve that paradox.